The air in the lab crackled, the sterile silence shattered by the arrival of Malik Voss. The warlord was a monolith of black iron and contained rage, his massive sword a promise of a swift, brutal end. Beside him, the hooded summoner was a column of pure, silent menace, the purple energy dancing around their hands a stark warning of the power they commanded.
Draven's mind didn't register fear. It registered data.
[Threat Detected: Malik Voss – Tier 4 Warlord. High Durability, High Melee Damage.]
[Threat Detected: Unknown Summoner – Tier 4 Caster. Unknown Abilities.]
The tactical analysis was instantaneous and grim. Two Tier 4 opponents against his Tier 3 team. The probability of winning a direct engagement was statistically insignificant. His primary objective had been to rescue the scholar, Elias. That objective had not changed. Killing Voss was a secondary goal, and one that was now clearly out of reach. This was no longer a battle to be won; it was a crisis to be survived.
"So, this is the ghost that's been haunting my camp," Voss's voice was a low, amused growl. "A boy, a girl, and a mangy dog. I'm almost disappointed."
His arrogance was a classic villain trope, but it was also a tactical advantage. It bought Draven time. As Voss spoke, Draven's eyes were darting around the lab, his mind running a thousand simulations. He saw the caged, unstable rift-spawn. He saw the containers of volatile Unstable Rift Essence. The environment itself was a weapon waiting to be triggered. He had his new plan.
He sent a single, sharp pulse of intent through his bond with Kara, a data packet of pure, desperate strategy: Forget them. The cages. Free Elias. Create chaos.
Kara's eyes, which had been locked on the enemy, flickered to the cages and then to the scholar. A slow, almost imperceptible nod. She understood.
"Your operations are over, Voss," Draven said, his voice a cold, steady instrument of misdirection. He was drawing their focus, holding their attention. "Your army is in chaos. Your tamers have deserted you. It's over."
Voss let out a booming laugh. "You think you've won? You are a rat in my fortress, and you are about to be crushed." He raised his sword. "Kill the girl. The boy is mine."
The battle exploded into motion. The hooded caster's hands erupted with purple energy, launching a volley of shadow bolts at Kara. But Draven was already moving, his own body a shield, his movements economical and precise as he deflected the bolts with a hastily summoned Stun Ward. The impacts jarred his arm, but he held his ground.
At the same time, Voss charged. But he didn't charge Draven. He charged Kael. The warlord was smart enough to identify the greatest threat.
The clash was a thunderclap of force. Kael, a Stalwart Vanguard of pure, unyielding durability, met the warlord's charge head-on. The wolf's armored form absorbed the blow that would have cut a lesser creature in half, his claws digging into the stone floor as he was pushed back, a living bulwark against a titan.
This was the opening. The two primary threats were now engaged. Draven, while dodging the caster's relentless barrage, gave the signal.
Kara moved. She wasn't a warrior in this fight; she was a saboteur. She ignored the two main combatants, her bow coming up. But she didn't aim at Voss or the caster. She aimed at the glowing, energy-based locks on the rift-spawn cages. Her first Essence-Disruptor arrow struck one of the cages with a sharp crack. The containment field flickered and died. A malformed, shrieking creature of claws and teeth tumbled out, its mindless rage immediately turning on the nearest target: the hooded summoner.
The caster let out a curse, forced to divert their attention to the freed monster. Kara fired again, and a second cage failed. Then a third.
"What are you doing?!" Voss roared, seeing the plan unfold. He tried to disengage from Kael, but the wolf was a relentless, unmoveable wall of fury, his fangs and claws tearing at the weak points in Voss's armor.
Draven saw his own window. While the caster was occupied with a growing swarm of freed rift-spawn, and Voss was locked in a brutal melee with Kael, he acted. He didn't attack. He ran, not away, but toward the stacked containers of Unstable Rift Essence. With a final, desperate surge of his own energy, he activated a low-level telekinetic shove from the System, a simple, brute-force push.
The containers toppled. The volatile, glowing liquid spilled across the floor, and the lab's sterile, cold air was instantly super-charged with raw, chaotic energy. The containment fields on the remaining cages overloaded and burst.
The lab went into a catastrophic meltdown. The unstable essence ignited, and a chain reaction of explosions tore through the tent. The screeching of the rift-spawn was drowned out by the roar of pure, dimensional energy being unleashed.
In the heart of that chaos, Kara had reached the scholar, her dagger slicing through his bonds. "Come on!" she yelled.
Draven, Kael, and Kara, dragging a terrified and disoriented Elias with them, plunged back out into the main camp. They threw the smoke bombs they had crafted, and a thick, acrid cloud filled the air, covering their retreat.
They fought their way back through the still-rioting camp, the sounds of the lab's destruction a series of deep, guttural explosions behind them. They reached the breach Jaxon had made in the wall and scrambled through, melting back into the darkness of the forest.
They had done it. They had rescued the scholar. They had destroyed the lab. And they had survived. But as they raced back toward the safety of the keep, Draven knew this was not the end. He had not killed Voss. He had only succeeded in making a monster even more furious. He had won the battle, but the war had just become intensely, terrifyingly personal.